What to look for when buying CF cards

I would like to buy more memory for my G6 - 512Mb or 1 Gb. I noticed on Ebay that there are some good offers about but what should I be looking for ? eg are some brands significantly better than others ? Is a CF card a CF card the world over or are there cards that will not work in some places (like the different DVD formats available etc). Would I be better buying from a main supplier ? If so, I am in the UK - any recommendations please ?
All advice would be welcomed

I am a Sandisk fan...

If you buy from unknown stores, make sure you can atleast read reviews on them like on Yahoo's shopping thing, or pricegrabber.com.

I'd recommend Sandisk Extreme Ultra II or III or Lexar 80x.

From what I understand, the G6 and earlier models can NOT take advantage of the higher speed CF cards. These cards, however, work well in the DSLRs. Where the high speed helps is when you want to transfer data from a CF card reader (USB 2.0) to a PC. If in the future, you intend to get a DSLR, the faster cards, like the ULTRA II and Lexar 80X would be a good choice.

I use 1GB, 512MB, and 128MB CF cards made by Simpletech -- which I purchased from various eBay sellers. These have worked well for me and I don't mind waiting for the upload on my 3 year old Dell PC with a USB 2 interface card and high speed CF card reader.

For deals on CF cards - try eBay or monitor the website http://www.fatwallet.c​om/c/18/ for bargains

Thanks for responses so far. Sounds as if Ebay is worth a stab but no-one has actually said yet whether there are different formats of CF card as I asked earlier. Any thoughts please ?

CF cards come in 2 types -- Type I (thin) and Type II (thicker). The G6 will take both types, whereas most of the Powershot line (S410, S500, etc), take the thinner type I.
If the ebay ad is not clear, question the seller about the card type, I or II before buying.

more info...

http://www.compactflas​h.org/faqs/faq.htm

I've got a few Viking cards 512Mb and 1Gb and they've been very reliable and they're quite cheap (about £45 for 1Gb). I don't think they're super fast (or so people say) but I haven't noticed them being particularly slow.

If you are in the UK, have a look at
http://www.aprmedia.co​m/
Get a lot of my stuff there, good service and good prices.
N
(No, I don't have any connection with them!)

CF cards are CF cards the world over. They don't suffer from the DVD abomination invented in my home town of Los Angeles.

I don't have good information on quality variation; my guess based on other fields such as computer memory is that there is little quality difference among brands. The big difference is speed, which (as others have said) matters primarily when uploading. Since I'm patient, I go for low price.

I have had a Fuji and 4 Integral cf cards "Fry". I lost images, from Sidney, a Med cruise and other important occasions.

Each time, I sent them back they were replaced with Integral. I was told that it was my camera. I sent it back to Canon for testing and they said it was OK and suggested I used Sandisk.

The last time - about a month ago when I sent my Australian ones back, Digiprint (from where I bought them) said that it appears that there was a compatibility issue with Integral and some of the Canon models. They apologised and sent me 2 TekQ Ultra 256 MB to replace my Integral. So far, they seem OK.

I have also purchased 2 256 MB Viking CF cards and they also seem to be OK>

HTH

With CF cards getting cheaper as the years goes by. But buyer beware on the unknown brands. I just stick to Lexar, ScanDisk and I haven't had any problems with PNY. You can get 1gb for under $90usd. Just shop around

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy any 2.2 GB microdrive CF card.

They are pretty cheap to be had (mainly on eBay), and are rebadged versions of the infamous 2.2 GB Magicstor CRAPDRIVE, responsible for legions of lost digital images.

Best regards,
Andy

I use the slowest Kingston 1GB card they sell and because the G6 isnt a write accelerated camera it is as fast as my 512MB 40X PQI card

Also make sure they are USB-enabled. I made the mistake of picking up a 1 gb Lexar card that was not USB-enabled. Instead of downloading with a card reader, I have to download from the camera (snore ...........) whenever I use it.

cheers,
jim

Rob Galbraith CompactFlash Performance Databas is an excellent source of info on two things: Compact Flash in general, and individual cards' actual performance. The database consists of performance timings for dozens of brands and models of CF cards in 1-2 dozen cameras. Unfortunately, all the cameras are DSLRs (probably because they are the only ones - AFAIK - that take advantage of accelerated write speeds). However, there is also a page with timings when writing through a card reader to the computer. This would certainly at least give you an idea of which cards offer generally better or worse performance.

To answer your general question, yes there are differences between brands. However, according to that article, there are only a few companies that manufacture CF card controllers, and only a few companies which manufacture the flash memory used in the cards. The companies who actually market the cards buy each component from one or more of the manufacturers then assembles them together. I didn't notice any indication of whether there's anything that a card manufacturer actually adds, quality wise, to the final product, such as "firmware".

HTH